When I wrote to ask about the Arizona law, I got this column back in an email:

[struggle4progress]

... As an immigration bill that nationally embarrasses Arizona becomes bad law, our best hope in my hometown is that the rest of America doesn't do to Arizona what Senate Bill 1070 requires our police officers to do to people with brown skin: "profile" them based on stereotypes and insufficient information.

Arizona is not a state seething with hatred, eager to trample the civil rights of residents in haphazard pursuit of illegal immigrants. Nor are most Arizonans bigots eager to drag our state back to the 1980s, when Gov. Evan Mecham's absurd behavior made our home a national laughingstock.

Our state is frustrated. We have become ground zero in the battle over illegal immigration because of years of lapsed federal border security. This week that frustration exploded, thanks to hateful political opportunists such as state Sen. Russell Pearce, the author of the legislation, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is already under investigation by the federal Justice Department for alleged violations of civil rights.

Pearce and Arpaio -- two men who are to Arizona law enforcement what George Wallace was to Alabama government -- care less about capturing human smugglers and drug cartel gunmen than they do about capturing headlines. And in a state with a far-right legislature that is increasingly out of step with an increasingly moderate population, they're also out of step with the rules of basic civility ...

The email contained the column but no link. Here's a link to the column at WaPo yesterday:
Not in my state: Anti-immigration law doesn't reflect the beliefs of Arizona's people
By Phil Gordon
Saturday, April 24, 2010
PHOENIX
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042304469.html

[Fumesucker]

1. It represents the beliefs of the people you elected as your representatives..

Which I think says a lot about your state.

Note: I live in a deep red state and understand that not everyone living in such states is a bigot.

I'm also speaking to the writer of the piece, not the DU poster.

[struggle4progress]

2. The author of the column is the mayor of Phoenix

[Fumesucker]

3. Hmm.. that's interesting..

But it doesn't negate my point regarding the fact that the law was passed by the lawfully elected representatives.

Does it mention anything at all about sanctioning those who hire illegal aliens as being a solution to illegal immigration?

[struggle4progress]

5. If you want the text of the law, search for SB1070

[Fumesucker]

6. Actually I meant the article you linked to.. n/t

[still_one]

4. Really, az isn't filled with hatred? az specifically sets up a law based on how someone

looks, is racism, NOT FRUSTRATION, BULL

that az is working to pass a law that unless a person can demonstrate he is a citizen, is a direct tea bagger accusation that Obama isn't a legal citizen, even though independent sources have all ready provided that proof, is not to insure validity of a person, but another example of az and its racist state

that some in az had a problem having a day honoring Martin Luther King, is another racist example

Not only should az be embarrassed, they should be boycotted like South Africa was during apartid